God Knows Me

Psalm 139:1–4 “1 O Lord, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. 3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all.”

Introduction

Review where we have been in the Psalms (Ps. 23)

A word that is used by theologians to describe one of the many attributes of God is this: God is “omniscient”

“Omni” Latin for “all:, and “scire” Latin for “knowing” - Therefore this word simply means that God is “all-knowing”

But what does it mean for God to be “all-knowing”? It has major ramifications on the universe as a whole -

God’s omniscience is his perfect knowing of himself, all actual things outside himself, and all things that do not become reality in one eternal and simple (not having any parts but having distinctions) act (exertion of energy)

“God’s knowledge precedes all things outside God, never being derived from reality outside himself (Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 1:4–5; 2 Tim. 1:9). God’s knowledge is also perfect, never increasing (Isa. 40:13–14; Rom. 11:34). It is definite—clearly defined, precise, certain, sure, and comprehensive (Ps. 139:1–3; Heb. 4:13). And God’s knowledge is eternally active, never passive, because God’s essence is eternally active.”

Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth Scriptural Evidence > Omniscience

1. Himself as triune (

God knows everything perfectly. This is not something He has derived from some other source, or learned from somewhere else… He knows all because He has ordained all.

God has never learned anything, rather He knows everything eternally.

This is comforting and terrifying, depending on our standing with God.

It is comforting to the saint, and terrifying to the sinner - Regardless, it should make us sit back and stand in awe of His might and power in knowing everything in the world.

He knows when empires will rise or fall, what election results will be, when plagues occur, when the natural disasters happen…

Yet, that God - He has taken the time and effort to not only pay His mind to those things but to also know us.

This is David’s comfort and praise to God in Ps. 139, let us read the first four verses together.

I. He Knows My Past

Psalm 139:1 “1 O Lord, You have searched me and known me.”

A psalm is a piece of musical literature that was sung in the congregation of God’s people.

When written, its intended use is to be used as an act of worship. That is why some of the most beautiful verses in Scripture are the Psalms.

However, at the same time some of the most profound things that we learn about God can be found in the Psalms. In this Psalm, we see David recounting how God knows him in an intimate way.

v.1 tells us this, “You (God) have searched me and known me…”

This is a past tense verse, this states that God has already done something in the past. This tells us something very significant about God: His knowledge of us is not something he learned.

It is “foreordained”, His knowledge of us far precedes our knowledge of Him.

Remember the song, “When He was on the Cross, I was on His mind”?

Jeremiah 1:5 “5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.””

Charles Spurgeon writes, “The Lord knows us thoroughly as if he had examined us minutely, and had pried into the secret corners of our being” (Treasury, vol. 3b, 258). He then adds, “This infallible knowledge has always existed” (ibid.). The Lord has always known everything about me and you.

II. He Knows Me Personally

Psalm 139:2“2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar.”

God not only knows us - He knows us on a personal and intimate level.

It is not that God knows “about” us… God “knows” us.

Real life example: I know about John Macarthur (list facts about him), but I don’t know him personally.

God is not like this, God not only knows about us, He knows us intimately.

He comments on the fact that God knows when he sits down and when he rises up… this is especially significant because we have to remember David is a king.

Therefore, nothing he did was private, every move he would have made would have been done in the presence of servants, guards, and footmen. Except for two points in the day, when he would lie down to sleep, and when he would wake up in the morning.

These two times of day were the only times that David would have been alone, and no one would have had access to him during this time. This would have been the private quarters of David’s life, his most intimate and hidden times.

Yet, he says, even in those times, there is One who sees him… it is The Lord. He sees the hidden things.

The Lord knows us intimately, and sees the things that we believe are concealed. He knows our internal thoughts, our actions, our missteps.

He sees our sins, but He also sees our struggles. & in the midnight hour when we are hanging on by a thread and we believe we have no one and we have a perception and perspective that we are alone and in the private quarters of our heart, can I say that God sees through the veil! He knows you, He knows what you are going through, and He sees it all.

III. He Knows My Path

Psalm 139:3 “3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.”

He not only knows where we have been (past), He knows where we are headed.

He has planned our path for us. That’s is what David is saying here.

God has not placed you where you are at by accident, you have not fallen into the hands of misfortune or unluckiness.

God has placed you exactly where He wants you - for the task He desires you to take upon youself.

Esther 4:14 “14 “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?””

In an attempt to urge Esther, the young woman, to act on behalf of the Jewish people, her uncle Modecai assures her of the fact that she was placed into the circumstances that she finds herself in on purpose for a purpose.

She is not there by happenstance or accident, but was purposefully placed there by God.

The same goes for us, He has scrutinized (determined) the path that we walk. He has placed us where we are at for a purpose, to fulfill a plan that He has for us.

I hear people lament that they were born in this day, and how they wish they could have lived in some other time period… can I say that God does not wish that, He has purposed a time and place for you here and now.

Therefore, let us take comfort in that fact that while we may only be able to see whats right in front of us, and it doesn’t quite make sense in the moment, God has a path carved for each and everyone one of us.

Trust the one who is holding the map. (Example: Driving through Atlanta w/ a map on my phone)

IV. He Knows My Pain

Psalm 139:4 “4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all.”

Lastly, He knows us so well, that He understands our pain.

Hebrews 4:15 “15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

He knows the pain of this world even better than we know it, because He lived it. As a human, Jesus Christ endured pain that is unimaginable. Physically on the cross and in the beatings. Emotionally, by the betrayal of His closest friends and rejection of His nation. Mentally, by bearing the stress of being a man whilst being the Messiah, having to heal, perform miracles, and teach. And most of all: spiritually, in bearing the weight of sin, conquering the temptation of Satan, and perfectly satisfying the righteous requirement of God the Father.

There is no pain that you can endure that He doe snot understand.

Do you know the difference between sympathy and empathy?

Sympathy means pity; empathy means I’ve been there.

As a pastor, I can express sympathy for everything… but there are very few things I can empathize with you about.

According to Heb. 4, Christ can empathize with us at “every point”. Meaning this: there is not temptation you will face, no pain you will endure, no battle you will fight, no addiction, depression, anxiety, sickness, disease, or ailment that you will endure that christ does not understand and empathize with you on.

So, before you even come to the point that you realize you need to pray about it, He already knows it… “before the word even arrives on your tongue.”

Even in the circumstances that you don’t know what to pray… how many have been there before?

Even in those times, He ministers to us. (Romans 8:26–28 “26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;)

We don’t know how to pray as we ought… if it were up to us exclusively to pray for ourselves to have the things we need… we would be poor people.

Think for a moment of what you would have today if you only had the things you thanked God for or prayed for this week… we’d be poor people.

Yet, The Holy Spirit of God, in His intercession for us, makes groanings or utterances to the Father for things that we do not even know to pray for.

He sees the inner-workings of our heart and knows us personally, He places us in the path that He has prepared for us, and He understands and recognizes the pain that we endure… and before the word of our supplication to Him is ever even uttered, He is already anticipating it and making provision for us.

All three of the persons of the Trinity at work here: God the Father in His knowledge of us, God the Son in His mediating for us, and God the Holy Spirit in interceding for us.

These truths will prod us to concur with David this in v. 4, “Behold, O Lord, You know it all.” - That should comfort us beyond measure.